Over the years, I’ve been commissioned to create a wide variety of artwork, from book and web illustration to event illustration, to Biblical interpretation, to worship theme, to gifts for other churches and more. Today, I pick out Living Word, an artwork I created in pencil and ink as the URC’s gift to the Presbyterian Church in Korea for a special visit to Korea in 2015. I still love it. Below is the image followed by my narrative of how I saw/see it.
Living Word
Uniting every church is the Gospel, found in the Word of God, Jesus Christ. The logo of the Presbyterian Church of Korea focusses on this most particularly, overlaying the cross of Christ on the scroll of the words in which we have found His story. I rested with this symbol for quite a while and then realised how uniting the Word is. I thought of the scrolls of the Hebrew scriptures, read by Jesus to proclaim his identity. From that Word is the life blood of all of our Churches. The scrolls in this piece are not so like the Hebrew scrolls with their wonderful holders and cases; they are more open scrolls, shining with warm light, indicating the Light which comes from the Word. The writing on these scrolls works across one scroll and down the other, hinting to the variety of written language we use to share the Word with each other. The scrolls almost look alive and the words on the scrolls eventually mingle, almost falling off; our words help us meet and mingle with one another.
The cross of the United Reformed Church has taken on a life of its own, reaching in and growing out of the Light of the scrolls. Both crosses are vibrant, both logos are almost alive in themselves, losing the symmetry of their original design. Rather than flat two dimensional shapes – present on letterheads and books – the logos have become three dimensional, brimming with life, sending Light in all directions. The relationship between the United Reformed Church and the Presbyterian Church of Korea is fluid, open, and ready for more life. A Living Word is lived and proclaimed.
Living Word
Watercolour, watercolour pencil and ink
2015
©Elizabeth Gray-King and The United Reformed Church